SFA 5/10 A fun day

Intamin Fan

Friday, May 10, 2002 6:44 PM

Seeing as my weekend was shot, I ventured down to Six Flags America for the first Friday of the season. For those who don’t know, this is when many kids get to go to SFA as part of their graduation from school. The park can be crowded, but the kids usually have to leave around 4pm, and the park closes at 6pm. Agreeing to meet up with Go With Gravity at 12:30pm, I ran to Gotham City to ride the “new” Joker’s Jinx. Not seeing GWG anywhere in sight, I got into line. After waiting 25 minutes, I got onboard the remodeled yellow train. Of course, GWG shows up at the exit right as I’m about to board. One thing I had forgotten after riding Flight of Fear, was how tricky it is to get into the new seats. The seat is a lot lower than the old design, and has more of a sportscar shape. I also observed that one man wasn’t having any luck closing the restraint. Let’s just say, if you’re paying $3 extra for your shirt at Wal-Mart, this may not be the ride for you.

The first 1/2 of the ride felt similar to the old ride, but that’s where the comparisons stop. First of all, I could put my hands up. Second of all, I didn’t have to be defensive through all the curves at the end. Whereas Flight of Fear still experiences side to side motion, Joker’s Jinx had no shuffling at all. I was also very pleased with the ride op who was smiling at everyone coming into the brakes. Just think that last year, not many people would’ve been smiling back.

Moving on, we went over to the Southwest Territory and stopped at The Cyclone (scrambler). Last year, this was the laughing stock of the park due to what I’m guessing was a worn-out motor. It’s safe to say that there were kiddie rides running faster than this. I immediately noticed its faster speed in comparison to last year, so we grabbed a ride. Sure enough, it’s back to running at normal scrambler speeds. Next we rode Two Face the Flip Side, where we took advantage of an unusually short line for my favorite seat, front row facing backwards. Then we rode Tower of Doom, and then Wild One.

After riding Roar, we headed next for Mind Eraser. In front of the ride is one of the funniest signs I’ve seen in years, besides the plubing company on Rt.97 advertising they were number one in the number two business. A company called Corn Nuts is sponsering ME, and the sign said to “Hold onto your ears”. A sign more apropos would be hard to think of. Seeing as the line held up to my 5 minutes or less, or I don’t ride policy, we hopped on. It wasn’t as rough today, surprisingly.

Heading back to Gotham City, we naturally had to get a ride on JJ again. We took one lap, and got back into line for the front row. Sitting down in the seat, the ride op couldn’t get the train to launch. So, sending everyone back into line, we patiently waited for maintenance. The young lady mentioned that the breakdown could’ve been due to airgate shaking, a cause of failure earlier in the day. While we were waiting, I ran into my buddy Paul, who had already experienced the magic last weekend (bastard). After about 5-10 minutes the problem was quickly resolved, and we got onboard again. Wow, I forgot how much the front row kicks butt on the launch. Afterwards, GWG had to leave for the day, so Paul and I continued onwards toward the tall one, known as S:ROS.

GWG has warned us that S:ROS was running full out today, and he was right. When we sat in the second row, I thought I was going to be forceably ejected out of my seat on the third hill. Tears were streaming out of my eyes also. After several laps, we discussed riding Batwing, but we both decided to pass. So we went back to-you guessed it-Joker’s Jinx for several more laps. The ride op running the ride actually acknowledged us after about the third time. We took full advantage of the fact that the shcools had started to leave, and we had many one-train waits.

Wrapping things up, we returned to the Southwest Territory, where we took one ride on Two Face in the forward facing front row. Lastly, we stayed on Wild One for three re-rides.

------------- The word "definitely" is definitely the most misspelled word on the buzz.